Pilings are utilized in a variety of different environments and for many uses, e.g. in marine environments for supporting and reinforcing piers and vessel docking structures, in the construction industry for supporting and framing buildings, for structure supporting foundations, and supporting and maintaining raised homes and buildings in flood prone areas. The structural members such as girders are quite often utilized on pilings to provide the foundation support for such structural members.
Regardless of the environment or context, pilings, which routinely and advantageously are wood or timber pilings, will eventually erode, deteriorate, rot or otherwise become damaged as a result of the passage of time, weather, wear and tear, wave and tidal action in marine situations, insect infestations, battering, etc. In many cases, the lower, less exposed section of the piling sustains far less damage, since it is often not directly affected by weather, it is imbedded in the ground and/or, in marine circumstances, may have cathodic protection. As a result, when deterioration of or damage to the upper section of a piling has become very severe, even though the piling's lower section is in tact, the piling must be repaired or totally replaced.
This is especially significant where pilings are relied upon to maintain and support homes and buildings above ground in shore communities, near oceans, lakes or rivers. In these areas, damage from flooding often damages the upper sections of support pilings, requiring pile replacement.
However, total replacement of pilings is an expensive and involved process, especially in marine environments. Even the repair of pilings is quite costly and time consuming, since these types of repairs usually involve the construction of a wall, cofferdam, or like barrier around the piling, with the subsequent removal of ambient water, in order to provide a dry space in which to work.
When it is necessary to secure girders or like supporting structural members to existing pilings, the current practice known as “banding” requires that a section of the piling be cut out to accept the girder, which is then attached to the piling. FIG. 1 depicts typical piling banding, in which section 202 of piling 200 is cut out and girder 203 is positioned within the section. Bolts/nuts 204 extend through piling 200 and girder 203 to secure the girder to the piling. This common method has the obvious deleterious effect of severely weakening the piling, which now must support the girder with less than its full structural compliment.
These time-consuming processes, many of which provide less than effective structural connections, and their resulting expense are exacerbated when major catastrophes create the need to address numerous piling failures. Property damage, such as occurred as a result of superstorm Sandy in 2012, highlights the need for effective, efficient, and economical means to repair deteriorated and partially destroyed pilings and their supporting structures. Such is needed not only to connect in situ pilings to new pilings in routine situations, e.g. docks, piers, docking stations, etc., but also for emergent construction, for instance to renew damaged pilings which support raised homes and other building structures in flood plague locations. In fact, new government requirements since Sandy require existing homes, buildings, and other shoreside structures to be built on timber pilings, raised to new elevations of up to three feet or more.